Apples, tourism are Valley casualties too

SRINAGAR: This apple season Kashmir’s sweetest and crunchiest gift is unlikely to reach fellow countrymen in the rest of India.

SRINAGAR: This apple season Kashmir’s sweetest and crunchiest gift is unlikely to reach fellow countrymen in the rest of India.

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The Valley’s orchards are laden with apples, but growers and traders are willing to sacrifice their fruits of labour for the bigger cause — Kashmir, where unprecedented unrest after the killing of a militant leader on July 8 showed no signs of abating. Clashes with security forces have taken the lives of 75 people and wounded thousands.

“For us, human loss is much bigger than any financial loss,” said Bashir Ahmed Basheer, chairman All Kashmir Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, on Tuesday.

A conservative estimate based on figures provided by fruit growers across Kashmir says the industry has suffered a loss Rs 1,000 crore in the two months of unrest.

The overall economy is on the brink. Trade bodies estimate a loss of around ` 130 crore of business every day in Kashmir. The total loss comes to around ` 8,000 crore in 60 days.

T he unrest has put the Valley’s second-largest money-spinner on the edge — tourism, which contributes around 20% to the state’s GDP and 30% of the population makes a living out of it.

A government official said the state is losing about ` 5 crore every day because the flow of tourists has stopped in what is called the August to October “second season” in Kashmir, coinciding with the Amarnath pilgrimage, apple harvest, and blooming of flowers. May to July is the peak season.

“Tourism is a broad-based industry and involves travel, transport, houseboats, hotels, restaurants, handicrafts, and related trades,” he said. All these are taken into account to calculate the loss. Apple trader Basheer blamed the state government for the loss.

“Growers are not able to transport fruits to wholesale markets because of curfew and restrictions on movement of trucks,” he said.

The apple season starts in September and ends in November. Basheer and fellow traders carted out around 200 truckloads of apples every day last season.

In 2015-16, apple production touched 19.43 lakh metric tonnes, accounting for 65% of Kashmir’s economic mainstay, horticulture, which contributes Rs 7,000 cr ore a year to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The impact of the unrest is visible in Asia’s biggest wholesale market in Azadpur, where Kashmir’s loss is a huge gain for Himachal Pradesh.

“Since there is no supply from Kashmir, Himachal apples are 30-40% costlier now as compared to the previous years despite being of inferior quality,” said Binkle Singh, a wholesale trader at Azadpur mandi. “Himachal’s growers will continue to profit if Kashmiri apples don’t reach the market.”

The Kashmiri businessmen are not counting their losses in terms of money .“We have lost our near and dear ones. Nothing can compensate that,” said Mushtaq Ahmed Wani, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He and Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation head Mohammad Yasin Khan are determined to support the people’s movement. “We are willing to sacrifice our businesses. There has to be a meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue,” Khan said, summing up the mood in the violence-scarred Valley.